USA announces Australia’s participation in Yemen war, parliament in the dark
National Times, By Ann Pavet, 16 Jan 24
Is this a constitutional crisis? On Friday 12 Jan 2024, a USA official spokesman announced that Australia was to provide a support role for the UK and USA troops who were about to attack Yemen. No announcement had been made to this effect by the Australian Government. The Australian people had to wait for the next day to know definitely if in fact such a decision has been made. How is it possible for the USA spokesperson to announce an Australian policy decision – on going to war against another sovereign state, no less – before it had been declared by the Australian Government?
Maybe Parliament should be recalled to discuss how such a situation could have arisen? Has the secret signing of more and more AUKUS documents handed our foreign policy over to the USA? It certainly looks like it. And the AUKUS texts seem to support this claim.
The whole world, with the exception of the USA and Canada, has just demonstrated at the United Nations our disgust at the Isreali attack on the entire population of Gaza, an open prison camp from which Gazans cannot escape to safety (and it has been so for 17 years). With 23,000 Gazan already dead and 70% of buildings destroyed, with refugee areas being deliberately bombed, this abuse and genocide can be compared to that of the Warsaw ghetto when the Nazis did exactly the same to the European Jews. And now the descendents of those European victims …….
In such a dire situation the Yemenis decided to attempt to stop those ships plying the Red Sea intending to deliver supplies to Israel. Now, weeks ago Israel stopped ALL supplies into Gaza, including water and fuel – a crime against humanity – which raised just a whimper from the USA and Australia. But US warships are immediately sent in to protect supplies going to Israel, and they have demanded that the Australian military supply them as they attack Yemen, a country already devastated by an 8-year long war led by Saudi Arabia with US support.
South Africa is currently pursuing a case at the International Court of Justice of intentional genocide by Israel against the people of Gaza. Should this court make an interim decision to call for a cessation of Israel’s attack on the Gazans, the Australian government will be caught well and true with its pants down as it actively supports US action in the Red Sea that is for the benefit of Israel.
That the US government can announce Australian military support on behalf of the Australian government is unacceptable at any time, but in the face of the horrors being carried out by Israel and the possible legal determination of genocide by Israel, the Australian government should not be the play thing of the USA, but should be actively supporting the world-wide calls for a ceasefire. Not only is this a constitutional crisis it is also an aberration of Australia’s duty as a world citizen to protect world citizens against abuse of all types.
Parliamentarians should now be demanding a recall of parliament to discuss not only the constitutional crisis but also Australia’s inaction in the face of hard evidence of the most appalling crimes by Israel, not only now but over the decades of settler colonialisation of Palestine, rubbishing the requirements of international law.
United Against Nuclear Iran: The Shadowy, Intelligence-Linked Group Driving the US Towards War With Iran
United Against Nuclear Iran, a secretive neoconservative organization with close links to the CIA and the Mossad, is trying to escalate the Israeli assault on Gaza into an Iraq-level U.S. Attack on Iran.
By Alan MacLeod / MintPress News
Most of the world has watched the Israeli assault on Gaza in horror. As tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced, tens of millions of people around the world have poured onto the streets to demand an end to the violence. But a few select others have taken to the pages of our most influential media to demand an escalation of the violence and that the United States help Israel strike not just Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon but Iran as well.
“I might have once favored a cease-fire with Hamas, but not now,” wrote Bush-era diplomat Dennis Ross in The New York Times, explaining that “if Hamas is perceived as winning, it will validate the group’s ideology of rejection, give leverage and momentum to Iran and its collaborators and put [our] own governments on the defensive.”
In the wake of Hamas’ October 7 assault, arch-neoconservative official John Bolton was invited on CNN, where he claimed that what we witnessed was really an “Iranian attack on Israel using Hamas as a surrogate” and that the U.S. must immediately respond. When asked whether he had any evidence, given the implications of what he was saying, he shrugged and replied, “This is not a court of law.”
On December 28, Bolton doubled down on his hawkish stance, writing in the pages of Britain’s Daily Telegraph that “The West may now have no option but to attack Iran” – a position he has held for at least a decade.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Saudi state-funded broadcaster Iran International, senior Bush official Mark Wallace bellowed that, “This is Iran’s work. Iran will suffer at the hands of retribution and will suffer the consequences of supporting this terror group and its horrific attack on Israel.” Wallace continued:
No civilized country wants further conflict. But the Iranians are forcing the civilized world’s hand. And you will see a dramatic response soon as the United States, Israel, and our allies begin to position assets around the world in preparation.”
If there was any doubt as to what sort of “dramatic response” Wallace wanted to see, he added a message to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: “I look forward to seeing you hanged from the end of one of your own ropes.”
Iran was recently the victim of a deadly terrorist attack. As mourners commemorated the U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani, two bombs exploded, killing 91 and injuring hundreds more. In this context, it was understandable why Iranian officials pointed the finger at the U.S. and Israel.
WARMONGERS, INC
What these individuals all have in common is that they are board members of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a shadowy but influential organization dedicated to pushing the West toward a military confrontation with the Islamic Republic.
Founded in 2008, the group is led by neoconservative hawks and has close ties to both U.S. and Israeli intelligence. It does not divulge where it receives its copious funding. However, it is known that right-wing Israeli-American billionaire Sheldon Adelson was a source. There is strong circumstantial evidence that Gulf dictatorships may also be bankrolling the group, although UANI has strongly denied this. In 2019, Iran designated UANI as a terrorist organization.
When asked by MintPress what he made of UANI’s recent statements, Eli Clifton, one of the few investigative journalists to have covered the group, said, “It’s very consistent with the positions and advocacy that the organization has taken since its inception.” Adding,
United Against Nuclear Iran does not miss an opportunity to try to bring the United States closer to a military conflict with Iran. And on the other side of the equation, they also have worked very hard to oppose efforts to de-escalate the U.S.-Iran relationship.”
UANI’s board is a who’s who of high state, military and intelligence officials from around the Western world. Among its more notable members include:………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
In addition, notable former board members include ex-CIA Director R. James Woolsey; head of Mossad between 2002 and 2011, Meir Dagan; and one-time chief of British spy agency MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove.For 15 years, UANI has organized conferences, published reports, and lobbied politicians and governments, all with one goal: pushing a neoconservative line on Iran. “UANI are a force multiplier. They provide at least the veneer of an intellectual infrastructure for the Iran hawk movement. They did not invent being hawkish on Iran, but they sure made it a heck of a lot easier,” Ben Freeman, Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program at the Quincy Institute, told MintPress.
CONFLICTS AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
For such a large, well-financed, and influential organization filled with senior officials, United Against Nuclear Iran keeps its funding sources very quiet. However, in 2015, Clifton was able to obtain a UANI donor list for the 2013 financial year. By far and away, the largest funders were billionaire New York-based investor Thomas Kaplan and multibillionaire Israeli-American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
PUTTING IRAN IN THE CROSSHAIRS
One of United Against Nuclear Iran’s primary activities, Iranian political commenter Ali Alizadeh told MintPress, is to create a worldwide “culture of fear and anxiety for investing in Iran.” The group attempts to persuade businesses to divest from the Islamic Republic and sign their certification pledge, which reads as follows:…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
INTELLIGENCE CONNECTIONS
That UANI is headed by so many state, military and intelligence leaders begs the question: to what extent is this really a non-governmental organization? “That is one of the dirty secrets of think tanks: they are very often holding tanks for government officials,” Freeman said, adding:
The Trump folks all had to leave office when Biden won, so a lot of them ended up in think tanks for a while, four years, let’s say. And if Trump wins again, they will bounce back into government. And the same is true of Democratic administrations, too.”
he U.S. government also clearly has a longstanding policy of outsourcing much of its work to “private” groups in order to avoid further scrutiny. Many of the CIA’s most controversial activities, for example, have been farmed out to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a technically non-governmental organization funded entirely by Washington and staffed with ex-state officials. In recent years, the NED has funneled millions of dollars to protest leaders in Hong Kong, organized an attempted color revolution in Cuba, organized anti-government rock concerts in Venezuela, and propped up dozens of media organizations in Ukraine………………………………………………………………………………………….
UANI’s funders certainly also have extensive connections to Israel. Kaplan is the son-in-law of Israeli billionaire Leon Recanati and is said to be close with Prime Ministers Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid. He has also employed a number of Israeli officials at his businesses. An example of this is Olivia Blechner, who, in 2007, left her role as the Director of Academic Affairs at the Israeli Consulate General in New York to become Executive Vice-President of Investor Relations and Research at Kaplan’s Electrum Group – a rather perplexing career move……………………………………………………………
A NETWORK OF REGIME CHANGE GROUPS
While United Against Nuclear Iran is already a notable enough organization, it is actually merely part of a large group of shadowy non-governmental groups working to cause unrest and, ultimately, regime change in Iran. These groups all share overlapping goals, funders and key individuals…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
In short, then, there exists a network of American NGOs with the mission statements of helping Iran, opposing Iran, preserving Iran, and bombing Iran, all staffed by largely the same ex-U.S. government officials……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
A LESSON FROM HISTORY
The history of Iran has been intimately intertwined with the United States since at least 1953 when Washington orchestrated a successful coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The slaughter in Gaza has been horrifying enough. More than 22,000 people have been killed in the Israeli invasion, and a further 1.9 million displaced. Israel is also simultaneously bombing the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon. The U.S. is facilitating this, sending billions of dollars in weaponry, pledging iron-clad political support to Israel, silencing critics of its actions, and vetoing United Nations resolutions.
But United Against Nuclear Iran is eager to escalate the situation to a vastly greater level, urging Washington to attack a well-armed country of nearly 90 million people, erroneously claiming that Iran is behind every Hamas or Hezbollah action. ………………………………………………………………………
IF UANI gets its way, a conflict with Iran might spark a Third World War. And yet they are receiving virtually no pushback to their ultra-hawkish pronouncements, largely because they operate in the shadows and receive virtually no public scrutiny. It is, therefore, imperative for all those who value peace to quickly change that and expose the organization for what it is. https://scheerpost.com/2024/01/16/united-against-nuclear-iran-the-shadowy-intelligence-linked-group-driving-the-us-towards-war-with-iran/
What sort of world do we want?: ICAN exec discusses ultimate goal of nuclear abolition
January 18, 2024 (Mainichi Japan)
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Executive Director Melissa Parke is set to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki from Jan. 19 to 21, ahead of the three-year anniversary since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force.
The risk of a nuclear conflict is at an all-time high since the end of the Cold War, and the TPNW has taken on an increasingly significant role to abolish all nuclear weapons to ensure safety for humanity, Parke said. The executive director sat down for an online interview with the Mainichi Shimbun prior to her first visit to the World War II atomic bombing sites, to share her views on the elimination of nuclear weapons……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240117/p2a/00m/0op/028000c
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 